Great Barrington — On Wednesday, May 23, at Crissey Farm, the Great Barrington Rotary awarded more than $60,000 in scholarships to 58 students from Monument Mountain Regional High School and Mount Everett Regional School. Over the past 35 years, the Great Barrington Rotary Club has awarded more than $1 million in scholarships.
Supporting student scholarships is one of the major community activities of the Rotary Club. Funds are raised at the annual golf tournament, the Bike & Fly, Truck Day, raffles and other special events. Individuals and several companies including Joe Wilkinson, Berkshire Bike & Board, Wheeler & Taylor, Salisbury and Berkshire banks, Greylock Federal Credit Union and Apella Capital are regular supporters. The club appreciates all the support from its community.
The Scholarship Committee is led by Mark DeCelle and Janet Dohoney. DeCelle is well-known for his yearly speech to students giving them advice about how they might structure their time.
DeCelle said: “The Rotary Club and all the local supporters are really focused on bringing opportunities to the youth of South County. It takes a village!” Dohoney added, “The gratitude expressed by the students and their families confirms the Rotary commitment to financially help as many students as possible to pursue higher education.”
In their applications, students voiced their future hopes and spoke of how the financial support sets them up for success. “The Rotary Scholarship is helping me continue my education at my dream school with less of a financial burden, which is great!” said Ariana Saporito a recipient from Monument. As important as the financial help is, students also benefit from being part of the Rotary community.
Mount Everett, with Scott Rote’s help, has set up an Interact Club, which supports students in service projects. Scott explained that, “As a longtime member of the scholarship golf tournament committee, it’s great to see how many local businesses and community members are willing to sponsor the tournament so that the club can give out as much as we do every year to so many deserving students from our two school districts.”
Mount Everett student Lauren Edwards said: “I am so grateful to have had the opportunity to get involved with the Rotary Interact club at Mount Everett. It gave me the chance to be a part of something greater than myself. As president, I was able to organize and participate in events to benefit my school and local community. Getting so many other student Interact members involved and seeing the positive effects of these activities and events has been truly inspiring and valuable. Working closely with the Great Barrington Rotary and getting personal help from rotarians has been advantageous for not only my own personal growth, but the growth of our Interact club as a whole. After working closely with this organization for the past two years, I am honored to receive a Great Barrington Rotary Scholarship and appreciate how highly the Rotary values education and supporting the success of the youth in our community. I hope to continue my involvement with Rotary in my future endeavors.”
Michael Wise, president of the Rotary Club, summed it up by saying, “Every year, Great Barrington Rotarians are honored to help the community launch these wonderful kids on to their adventure.”
The Great Barrington Rotary Club is proud to celebrate the Class of 2018 and all students. If you are interested in participating in events or attending a meeting, reach out to a Rotarian.
Great Barrington Rotary scholarship winners
Abbott, Jessica
Abrams, Eliza
Bartlett, Micaela
Beckwith, Camille
Beckwith, Sarah
Bellow, Stella
Biernacki, Shane
Brake, Katelynn
Collopy, Graham
Collopy, Vaughn
DeGrenier, Morgan
deManbey, Maria
Donsbaugh, Ahnaka
Duffin, Leigh
Duffin, Nicholas
Duhon, Peyton
Edwards, Lauren
Flynn, Hannah
Forland, William
Galotta, James
Goretti, Michael
Gray, Nicholas
Gray, Paige
Hall, Jason Andrew
Herrick, Caitlyn
Leon-Duque, Mark
Long, Ella
Makuc, Joe
Makuc, Justin
Makuc, Marya
Marchione, Olivia
Martsen, Emily
Mathieu, Stephanie
Marzursky, Ethan
McAlister, Masho
McFarland, Adelaide
McFarland, Trevor
Mead, Cynthia
Murray, Alex
Netzer, Kelsey
Parkes, Matthew
Peretti, Evan
Race, Hannah
Redpath, Madeleine Rose
Rice, Rowan
Robbins, Jacob
Rybacki, Delanie
Saporito, Ariana
Sawyer, Donovan
Shron, Sophie
Snyder, Parker
Spitzer, Shay
Subklew, Kiley
Troiano, Kevin Anthony
Turner, Trevor
Walsh, Brittany
Walsh, Matthew
Zoeller, Benjamin